Grocer shot in robbery: 'If police don't catch this guy, we all might as well leave Chicago'

Deanese Williams-HarrisTribune reporter

Brazen. It's the only way people up and down the block in Park Manor on the South Side could describe how two armed robbers hit the corner meat market and coldly shot the owner as he lay on the floor.

Cameras were trained both inside and outside the market at 71st Street and Rhodes Avenue, according to Dominick Riccordino, who manages the building that has housed the store for about six years.

"If the police don't catch this guy, we all might as well leave the city of Chicago," Riccordino said. "He is a good guy."

The owner, a 52-year father of three, was wounded in the abdomen and head but was reported as stable. Employees said the Jordanian immigrant has had the store since 2000.

Police say two armed men entered his store at about 6:50 p.m. Wednesday and announced a robbery. They shot him in the abdomen, then jumped over the counter and grabbed cash from the register, according to Police News Affairs Officer Robert Perez.

On the way out, the store owner was shot a second time, Perez said.

"I'm shocked, he didn't deserve this," said Robin Moore, 46, who works nearby and goes into the store every day. "If you were short a dollar, it didn't matter with him. He helps everyone."

Riccordino said several of the shop's employees rent apartments from him, and the owner would often help them pay the rent. "It comes out of his pocket," Riccordino said.

People who work on the block say they are frightened. Many of them refused to give their names as they talked about the robbery.

"Everyone loved him," said the owner of a barbershop nearby. "I'm shocked this happened to him. He was a good guy. I just pray he's able to recover."

A fruit and vegetable vender, who would only give his first name as Oron, said he has known the store owner for 10 years, when he first began selling to the man.

"[He] buys things from me that he doesn't need, to put money in my pocket," said Oron, who came here from Israel. "He was the last person who deserved this."

An employee agreed. "He was a good person, everyone [who] came in, he would say, 'I love you.' Everyone loved him."